Some 612,000 ballots had been returned as of Friday morning across Colorado, with registered Republican voters holding the lead in getting their votes in just a few days before Election Day 2017.

Registered Republican voters have returned 236,423 ballots, trailed by registered Democrats with 204,199 ballots returned and unaffiliated voters at 164,755 ballots returned.

Voters between 18 and 25 remain the age group with the lowest number of ballots returned as of Friday morning, having submitted just 20,473 ballots, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

Politics reporter. He has worked at The Denver Post since the summer of 2014, covering cops, courts, politics, environment, skiing and everything in between. He loves telling stories about Colorado's mountain towns and the Eastern Plains and wants to make sure our newspaper's great work extends into their communities.

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The sexual harassment complaint against GOP state Sen. Randy Baumgarder has overflowed into a contentious statehouse debate about legislation to fund fixes for Colorado's roads, with Democrats pushing back on the measure both over policy disagreements and the lawmaker's role as one of the bill's main sponsors.

Welcome back to The Spot, where The Denver Post's politics team captures what's happening this week -- from the Colorado legislature to Denver city hall, with a stop through the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Denver City Council members' joint statement opposing further investigation into Mayor Michael Hancock's text message scandal drew quick scorn Wednesday from critics who accused the council of failing to hold the mayor accountable.